A Tool is a Tool

“…what do you think if we just put one of them shock collars on him so he knows to come back when he gets away?” There are so many tools available to us dog trainers/owners/lovers. Above is a typical thought, born out the best interest of the dog, but is… Continue reading

The Path is Straightening Out For One L’il Bud

Raider’s path to my family is definitely not as tough as a lot of other dog’s lives, but it is more difficult than it needed to be. His only 8 month journey in life so far could have been easier if people would’ve done just a little more, whether physically… Continue reading

Today is Payday!

How excited do you get when you say “today is payday”?! A common question of new clients is “when do you think we’ll be able to stop (feeding as) reinforcement?”. It’s understandable, I mean we don’t want to have to give a treat every time we ask something of our… Continue reading

Equipment is Your Friend, Not Your Savior

Harnesses are everywhere! What a bunch of junk. Don’t rely strictly on your equipment some company tells you their product will “fix your walk”. Before becoming a trainer, I could never figure out why Willie (my golden/husky/lab) wouldn’t stop pulling on our walks! Harness after different harness I tried. “Why… Continue reading

Keep Cool, Fool! What Would You Do?

I had a situation while walking Willie today. An off-leash pup came running full-speed at us from about 20-25 YARDS away. What would you do? If you would freak/tense-up/get anxious, you would fit in with probably 90% of dog owners – & thats ok, it’s normal human response. But if… Continue reading

Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance

Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance … sounds boring , right? But, oh, so important! A fellow shelter employee was asking for advice the other day. She has three dogs (used to be four), one of them has resource guarding and “dominance/alpha” issues. She did a lot of work to resolve the resource… Continue reading

Who’s at Fault & Who Suffers the Consequence

I had an interesting and “long” conversation with the driver on the bus coming home from the shelter the other day. B.Driver: “Hey, man, I saw you the other day over here walking like five dogs! Was that you? You don’t see that every day, I mean you see that… Continue reading

Training Tools, Motivator to Crutch

We are supposed to be the intelligent species. The people who say this obviously don’t see what I see. I’ve talked to other balanced trainers who get a lot of business from “purely positive” failures. PP is very idealistic, not very practical. You can’t just ignore all bad behaviors, sometimes… Continue reading

Having to Break a Traumatic Experience

Me and Willie have been walking the same path two or three times a day for five years. I’m pretty sure he’s really comfortable and there are a lot of positive experiences on it. We’ve walked thru many rain storms, no big whoop, even in the hard rain. He is… Continue reading

Training Dogs and People is Practically the Same, We Are Just Animals After All

I’ve held a leadership role for over 20, of my 30 working, years. In dog training it’s imperative to praise each and every time (when they’re learning), but with people I rarely did. I just felt you were supposed to do what you were supposed to do, and do it… Continue reading